Covid sceptics back in political trap

If we want freedom why not afford it to Palestine too?

- NIALL MCCRAE

ON October 7, a large number of Hamas militia somehow crossed the most heavily secured border in the world to kill and kidnap Israeli citizens.

According to the authorities in Tel Aviv, about 1,400 died in the attack, and over a hundred were taken hostage. Benjamin Netanyahu's government immediately declared war, and began an aerial bombardment of Gaza city, destroying swaths of apartment blocks. Water and electricity supply to the enclave was cut, and Israel ordered the full evacuation of the northern half of Gaza, prior to its tanks going in.

This latest eruption of the deadly conflict raises important questions. First, did the Israeli state know of the Hamas operation, why were watchtowers and other security posts unmanned, and why did it take several hours before the army arrived? Secondly, why was the blitz of Gaza justified rather than condemned by Western leaders? Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated that Israel has a right to defend itself.

But this was not defence: it was a massacre of inhabitants of a densely-packed urban area, and soon the death toll was a multiple of that killed by the initial terrorism.

Much of the mainstream media took Israel's side, as did many independent outlets and commentators from the right of the political spectrum.

Simon Elmer was a trenchant critic of the covid-19 regime, whose essays were compiled in The Road to Fascism: For a Critique of the Global Biosecurity State.